200 civilians killed by Russian air strikes in Syria, report says

Washington Post

Published 2:11 pm, Wednesday, December 23, 2015

At least 200 civilians have been killed by Russian air strikes in Syria since Russia’s air campaign began there in September, according to a new report by Amnesty International. Amnesty has called the strikes “serious failures to respect international humanitarian law” and said they may amount to war crimes.

The report primarily focuses on 25 Russian strikes from Sept. 30 until Nov. 29 in Homs, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo provinces. The entirety of the analysis, according to the report, was conducted “remotely” and used phone interviews with people on the ground, videos and other imagery. Amnesty also used open-source publications and consulted with a number of other agencies, including the United Nations.

In one attack in Idlib province, Amnesty claims that Russian warplanes launched three missiles into a crowded marketplace. According to the report, 49 civilians were killed and no military targets were present. Russia’s military, while in possession of precision-guided munitions, has predominantly used unguided weapons or “dumb bombs” — many of them decades old — against targets in Syria.

Some of the strikes, according to Amnesty, involved Russian aircraft indiscriminately bombing populated civilian areas and the use of cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are a type of weapon that disperses hundreds of smaller explosives. Many of these “bomblets” fail to explode, and they often later kill or maim those who stumble upon them. Though banned by many nations, cluster munitions are still manufactured, sold and used by countries such as Russia and the United States.

Russia has remained silent on civilian casualties and contends that it is attacking only “terrorist targets.”